The cynical believe that most people are just waiting for their turn to speak in conversation. Beat the trope by listening and rephrasing what your partner tells you back to them. This is one way to become a more likable conversation partner.

As tips blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree explains, rephrasing what your conversation partner tells you is an exercise in attentive listening. It forces you to pay attention and retain key facts. However, it also has the added benefit of making you more likable. Most people enjoy it when someone pays attention to them and understands. If you can effectively summarize what they're telling you, they're likely to appreciate it:

A little game I like to play is "Can I summarize what the person just said to their satisfaction?" If you repeat back the gist of what they communicated and they respond, "Exactly" you're doing great.

Of course, this method requires an element of passively listening. You can't simply use a mental thesaurus to change a few words. However, if you make the effort to understand the person's point of view and explain how you interpret it, they're more likely to respond positively to you.